Niki Tehranchi

Apprentice Recap, Season 10, Episode 4 (Thursday, October 7, 2010)

I was so disappointed in Mahsa!  It was her time to shine as Project Manager of her team Fortitude and she lost :(  And I hate to say this, but the wrong person went home.  But let's start at the beginning.

The task this week was to produce a "guerilla marketing style" video that would go viral on the Internet, to promote a popcorn company.  It was actually a new, interesting challenge because in the past, the candidates have always been asked to produce traditional marketing campaign such as a TV commercial or print ads but this was new and exciting and should have been right up Mahsa's alley since she used to have two web-based shows, starred in some Internet videos to promote the Brooklyn DA's office and just seems very Internet savvy, twitting and Facebooking all the time.

Both teams had the advantage of using an expert in the field, who explained to them very clearly what a viral video was.  Basically a stunt, on a large-scale, that is almost always humorous and involves an absurd activity in a public place.  For example, the guy had people show up in a New York subway in their underwear.  Or he organized 200 people in Grand Central Station to freeze simultaneously.  His videos have gotten millions of hits.

Mahsa was actually a very good project manager.  She did not dilly dally.  She took charge without being obnoxious.  She really put herself out there, multi-tasking but also open to ideas of her colleagues and delegating.  She cut short Tyana's negative vibe.  Tyana looked like she was sleepwalking through the task and I would not be surprised if she held back to sabotage Mahsa's project.  She was the only one who recognized that the team was headed in the wrong direction but held back until basically the eleventh hour, when noone could fix anything anymore and they had to make do with what they got.  Basically, what Mahsa produced was a humorous, traditional TV commercial with a concept of people eating popcorn while working out at Gold's Gym.  It completely missed the point of the whole challenge which was to create a stunt, something grandiose and involving crowds of people, preferably in a public place. 

I mean come on Mahsa.  You live in New York.  There are sooooo many landmarks that could be used as a a backdrop.  Time Square.  Washington Square Park.  Central Park.  What about a race in Central Park's popular jogging path, with people wearing mascot costumes with the company logo and throwing popcorn bags as prizes at the finish line.  Or since you are a lawyer, go to the court downtown and stand on the steps, showering the lawyers coming down the steps with popcorn like brides walking through clouds of celebratory rice.  If you had to be at the gym, why not fill the swimming pool with popcirn and then have astonished gymgoers watch as swimmers waded around in a sea of popcorn.  There could have been a gazillion ideas and locations but sadly, Mahsa missed the mark.

The guys' team, led by Clint, had the advantage of Crazy Dave being absent due to a tooth emergency.  By the way, sidenote, Crazy Dave is hilarious.  Even the way he eats popcorn was evil and mad, kind of like watching Dr. Evil eating popcorn, with a crazy smirk on his face, and his teeth gnashing on that corn kernel like it was a tiny human head.  The guys'idea of just walking around hitting pedestrians on the head with popcorn bags and having a big popcorn pillow fight at the end so that Fifth Avenue was drowned in popcorn was juvenile and simple, like what a bunch of frat boys would think was funny.  However, what they lacked in creativity they made up in the fact that they actually created the product that was required.

In the boardroom, Mahsa and the Donald had another Yoda/Luke Skywalker moment when Mahsa stated proudly "I am tough." to which Donald quickly barked:"Don't say you're tough.  DON'T SAY YOU'RE TOUGH.  When people say they're tough, it's because they're not."  Mahsa, looking like a puppy that was beaten down, quickly retreated and agreed with her master.  However, there is no question that it was her toughness that saved her from being fired tonight along with Tyana looking like she had swallowed a half bottle of sleeping pills in the morning.  There is no other reason why every single woman on the team pointed to Tyana as the culprit who should be fired.  They just were peeing their pants at the thought of Mahsa taking them down in the boardroom.  Sure, Tyana was negative, did not contribute any ideas and coyly waited til the task was almost over to point out that their product was crap.  And on top of it all, she laughed at the men's video.  However, she was not the cause of their failure.  The project manager was responsible for that.  But Tyana was the one who was ultimately fired.

The episode ended with Mahsa walking hand in hand with Liza back to their suite, in a scene reminiscent of Mahsa walking hand in hand with Tyana at the end of the first episode.  This seems to be a curse of some sort so Liza, you better watch your back next week!